The new rules for achieving financial freedom

A lot of people think owning a home is the cornerstone of the American Dream. They don't realize it can lock them in place at a time when it's more important than ever to have to freedom to chase opportunity. As I wrote recently on Yahoo Finance:

Americans have always moved around in search of a better life, whether it was homesteaders moving west in the 1800s, rural citizens moving to cities in the 1900s or immigrants coming to America from all over the world, beginning with the country’s founding. But we’re a lot less mobile than we used to be. The rate of “labor mobility’’—people moving around for a better job—has dropped to the lowest levels since the 1940s. At the same time, many companies say they can’t find all the workers they need, which means some people who might be gainfully employed but aren’t are simply in the wrong place....